Japan-based JCB has announced a new solution aimed at broadening the use of mobile payments.

Dubbed ‘Tap on Mobile’, it’s a contactless payments program that JCB has developed in collaboration with Soft Space, an APAC-based FinTech company. Integrating JCB’s contactless engine for payment transactions, the program is designed to let end users make contactless payments using NFC-equipped Android smartphones. These payments can be made at any merchant already supporting the JCB Contactless payments program for cards or mobile devices.

“The Tap on Mobile is secure yet convenient for our customers, and given the growth of contactless payment transaction and consumer smartphones worldwide, we believe that the Tap on Mobile will be the key initiative for JCB to drive our contactless agenda to grow globally,” explained JCB Brand Infrastructure and Technologies VP Tac Watanabe.

For Soft Space’s part, CEO Joel Tay seemed to gesture toward the COVID-19 pandemic in highlighting Tap on Mobile’s benefits. “With businesses being constantly challenged by changing global economic scenarios, Tap on Mobile is a tool that can aid them through such times by offering them an innovative, cost-effective and secure payment solution.”

Tap on Mobile’s announcement comes after JCB integrated a biometric fingerprint sensor into an experimental new payment device last autumn.